Ford leading commercial van market because of its unique technology

Budrigantrade.com - Ford Motor Company A 9-meter-long (30-foot) screen at Co's UK headquarters in Dunton, east of London, depicts the company's efforts to use the plethora of data generated by its vans and trucks, such as engine information, oil filter information, and brake pad information, to expand its customer base in the European and American commercial vehicle markets.

That screen displayed real-time data from 114,000 vans in Britain that have been covered by Ford's FORDLiive monthly subscription service during a recent investor visit.

Ford employees were particularly focused on the 1.7% of vans that were not in use, while they were also focused on the 98.3% of vans that were in use and, out of those, approximately 8% were in need of repairs fairly soon or urgently.

The American automaker monitors 4,000 data points via modems that it has installed in all commercial vehicles since 2019; as a result, it is able to alert paying customers of engine issues as well as basic issues like brake pad wear, low oil, and diesel additives, which are inexpensive to prevent but costly to fix if they are ignored.

The automaker has connected all of its dealers in the United Kingdom to its system, allowing it to schedule van repairs and prepare parts before they arrive at a dealership.

The system was introduced in 2021 by Ford, which is the market leader for commercial vehicles in both Europe and the United States. According to Hans Schep, the European head of Ford Pro, the company's commercial vehicle business, long-term goals of increasing vehicle "up time" by up to 60% are close to being achieved.

According to Ford's estimation, each van's downtime costs an average of 600 pounds ($724) per day.

Schep stated, "This has already been a major game-changer."

Ford is introducing the FORDLiive service to mainland Europe and the United States after a successful test run in Britain. The company has placed a greater emphasis on its profitable Ford Pro business in Europe than on mass-market passenger cars with lower margins.

Ford recently announced job cuts in Europe for engineers, but it continues to hire software specialists for its data services.

For manufacturers of commercial vehicles, data is a huge battlefield, and competition will only get worse with electric models, which are basically computers on wheels.

Using data to show where vans are, how much fuel they use, how drivers use or misuse them, and whether they can skip an oil change is becoming as important as the vehicles themselves. But the most important thing is to avoid downtime.

In the European Union, insurers, leasing companies, and auto repair shops are also engaged in an ongoing dispute over who has access to connected car data and how much money it could bring in.

Ted Cannis, Ford Pro's chief executive, stated, "We plan to grow our leadership position." We will enter numerous additional markets that we did not previously operate in."

Electric vans give Ford and its rivals a lot more data points to work with, including tracking how much range they have left and offering simple, all-encompassing charging options.

Schep of Ford stated that van fleets must provide this data because, according to the automaker's research, "really worried about the journey to electric" concerns 60% of its corporate customers.

DHL Express's UK operations, which are a part of Deutsche Post (OTC:) DHL Group has signed up for FORDLiive and currently owns 270 electric Ford E Transit vans, with firm orders for 120 more.

Richard Crook, director of the fleet, stated that he wants to utilize Ford's predictive maintenance capabilities in addition to monitoring the batteries in those vans.

"The vehicle is actually telling you "I have a problem," so we need to get ahead of things and plan maintenance schedules," Crook stated.

General Motors Co., a rival of Ford, (NYSE:) has also launched telematics services like "in-vehicle coaching," in which a voice that goes by the name "Karen in the vehicle" warns drivers about speeding, overbraking, and other bad habits.

According to Michelle Calloway, director of OnStar Business Solutions at GM, "Karen" reduced one customer's fleet's fuel consumption by 30% in 30 days.

Calloway stated, "Those are impactful savings scaled across a large fleet."

Beginning with 2024 models, GM will give a scope of OnStar information benefits free for armada vehicles. Customers are likely to pay more for those services once they try them, according to Ed Peper, GM's fleet sales manager.

According to chief technology officer Marco Liccardo, Iveco Group NV, an Italian manufacturer of buses, trucks, and vans, has approximately 150,000 connected vehicles that use telematics services. The company has experienced a 30% increase in uptime and a "single-digit percent" drop in warranty costs thus far.

By 2030, according to Liccardo, subscription services will contribute between 40% and 50% of the profits of manufacturers of commercial vehicles. They will also assist franchise dealers in surviving the transition to electric vehicles by providing them with fewer parts to service.

Liccardo stated, "Data will be the oxygen to do that."